All About Web Hosting: Servers, Web Hosting & Virtualization

Server Hosting is a service that allows companies and individuals to rent servers that are maintained by a dedicated hosting company. The service provider maintains racks of pre-built servers that they allow customers to access and use for a monthly fee. There are different types of servers running different types of operating systems that are available. Additionally, the servers can be physical or virtual. Web server hosting is an example of a virtual server as there may be several that are physically located on a single computer server.

Virtual Architecture

A hosting server may itself not be running the operating system that the client uses but be running a specialized operating system that allows many different systems simultaneously. This is the virtual model and is rapidly becoming the most common. In this case you will have the option of selecting the number of processors that you feel you need, the amount of memory you will need and other options. The hosting servers themselves are very powerful systems called rack system and are mounted on banks of racks. They generally have 8 or more processors and act as the host server for the client systems.

Web Hosting Servers

Web hosting is one of the most popular forms of server host model. In this model the options that the client selects will deal with the amount of storage space that the website requires and the bandwidth they expect to use. Servers hosting websites, as well as other virtual services are hardened against damage with RAID drive systems, continuous backup along with independent power and redundancy.

This means that if the web hosting server itself fails completely the clients site will only be down for a few minutes while the redundancy kicks in on the secondary host servers. RAID drive systems allow the physical server to continue to work in the event of the failure of one of its hard disk drives without loss of data. These facilities will also have advanced fire suppression systems. Server hosting providers will provide on-site technical staff to manage the physical servers as well as provide technical support to clients.

Other Services

Other services are also available now with the growth of virtual servers. These can include e-mail servers, database servers and security systems. More recently, mobile phone management systems have become popular in the server hosting ecosystem. There are also virtual backup systems that are provided on a storage size pricing model that offer guaranteed backup of business data that combine on-site physical servers and remote virtual servers. With the development of virtual servers, the cost of server hosting has reduced drastically. Actual physical servers can be rented and used for any purpose the clients need, although the cost is higher. Clients will also be expected to have the ability to install and support the systems that they are running on the hosted server unless other options are available.

Sources:
Glossary of Terms, "Web Hosting," Harvard Cyber law
Glossary "Virtual Hosting," Apache Server Documentation Project